This could have been the greatest Mario game of all time, and maybe it actually is, but there are a few big issues that keep it from being a flawless masterpiece. As I am a pretty experienced Mario player (having 100%ed every 3D game with the exception of 64 and Sunshine), allow me to sum them up.

1) Controls
The core controls are wonderful. They are on par with - if not better than- the magical controls of the Galaxy games. But the forced and awkward motion controls are a huge missed opportunity. They work fine enough and you can comfortably get through the game while ignoring them, but you'll miss out on a few useful cappy moves that keep things moving even more fluently. Having the option to customise the button mapping would have solved this issue.

2) Length
You can beat the base game pretty quickly; in my case over the course of a weekend. There's still a lot to do in post game, but it's balanced pretty poorly. I would have preferred a main game that was say 5-10 hours longer, with a shorter and less tedious post game. You could make the argument that this makes secondary playthroughs and speedruns more interesting, but even for those the game is too short for my liking.

3) Difficulty
This is the game's biggest problem. If you thought Galaxy 1's main game was easy, this is something else entirely. Even the dedicated platforming challenges can get pretty boring because of the lack of tough segments. There certainly are a few collectibles that require some skill to get, but the overall challenge for me (so far at least) has never really gone beyond "tricky". Even so, the game has a "super handholding mode" you can activate at any time for newcomers to video games. So if you're looking for a hard 3D platformer, well... Maybe give Crash Bandicoot a go.

Okay so now that's over with let's talk a bit about the fun stuff.

1) Presentation
This game is gorgeous. The graphics and art style work together very well to deliver a sight to behold that only gets prettier the further you get in the game. Important to note is that the framerate tends to take a bit of a dive sometimes in New Donk City, but overall it stays at a fairly steady 60 fps.

2) Level design
Apart from the relative lack of challenge, I love the level design. There are tons of collectibles everywhere, with a lot of them being hid away very cleverly. Exploring the beautiful worlds is a ton of fun, and even after finding big important items the level doesn't end, so you just keep going for as long as you want. That way the pacing keeps up the entire way through and you're always busy with something.

Okay, to prevent myself from rambling too much let me try and wrap this up.
Despite its problems, this is a fun game. You may not find a challenge here, but what you will find is a huge smile on your face from beginning to end. It oozes with the timeless Mario charm, callbacks to his entire career, adorable characters and so much more.